The last time I actually looked forward to watching Law &Order, Bill Clinton was in his first term. The mid-90s were the show's best years, and while this latest season doesn't come close to matching them, the show doesn't feel as tired as it has in recent seasons.

Part of the new vitality comes from new cast members Linus Roache and Jeremy Sisto in the junior detective/lead prosecutor roles. But a bigger part is the stories the show is choosing to tell this season. Last year, it seemed like nearly every episode involved some sort of celebrity scandal. This year, "the ripped from the headlines" philosophy hasn't vanished, but the writers are (or were, since these were obviously written before the strike) pulling those headlines out from, say, The New York Times rather than the New York Post.

Tonight's episode, for example, is based around a (sadly) real life lawsuit, where a judge sued his dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants. Another judge threw the case out, and told the plaintiff he might have to pay the defendants' legal bills. Like a Law & Order:Criminal Intent episode from last year, it also touched on the tainted Chinese toothpaste case from last year, something I helped report on for the Morning Call (ripped from one of my headlines, so to speak...it's pretty cool).

Dropping the celebrity murderer angle has allowed them to tell better stories with more depth (take last week's episode, where a pipe bombing touched on genetic research, homophobia, and family loyalty).

Like I said, Law & Order's best years are likely behind it. And it pales in comparison to shows like TheWire, Lost, or Dexter. Still, even without the strike going on, this latest season has given new life to an 18-year-old show.

Moving to a much newer show, the second season -- which begins Feb. 12 -- of the CBS post-apocalypse drama Jericho promises to be better than the first, at least from what I can tell by watching a preview DVD provided by the network. Now that they've established the basic premise (a small Kansas town tries to survive after nuclear attacks destroy several major cities and shut down the country), they can move on to more interesting things: the conspiracy behind the attacks.

I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that even with a quasi-national government in charge and society functioning again, things haven't gotten much safer for the residents of Jericho. By the end of the third episode, we've gotten hints that there are forces at work here just as threatening -- in the long run -- as the nuclear bombs.

Here's what I wrote about the first season after watching it on DVD last month:

It's just that the show is way too earnest and serious, and also too focused on dull domestic drama. The best parts -- and the reason to keep watching -- are the moments that give us small, frightening glimpses of what's happening in the rest of the country. Unfortunately, you often have to slog through sleepy story lines involving unfaithful husbands and a mayoral election to get to the more interesting question: who was behind the attack? At this point, it's the only thing keeping me watching.

Now, that more interesting question is getting a lot more play, which will keep me watching yet again.